Important Questions for Your Accessibility Consultant

Asking your accessibility consultant the most important questions helps you a lot in managing your accessibility project. Through the consultant’s answers, you can plan out the next steps in making your web site accessible. It can also help you avoid or prepare for setbacks in the project.

Below we will discuss some of the most important questions you should ask your accessibility consultant. Having this list is useful when you are meeting your consultant for the first time.

How Long Will It Take to Complete the Accessibility Project?

Your accessibility consultant should give you an estimated number of weeks or months to make your web site accessible. This lets you prepare for your schedule and the number of hours you will give to the project. The timetable of the accessibility project also depends on the consultant’s answer.

You can help the consultant make a better estimate by identifying the number of pages in your web site. Point out the complex features or electronic documents contained in the pages.

Which Assistive Technologies Will You Use?

An accessible web site mainly benefits persons with disabilities. This is why you should know the assistive technologies people with disabilities use to access the Internet. Ask your consultant about the assistive technologies that will be used in testing the accessibility of your web pages.

Being aware of these technologies lets you better recognize the needs of Internet users with disabilities. Plus you can focus a bit more on a particular technology used by the main disabled group you are targeting, if you have any.

Can You Help in the Coding of the Web Pages?

This question is useful if you do not have a web development team. You need to know if your consultant can help you create and set up the web site, apart from ensuring its accessibility.

Another case where you need to ask this question is if you have your own team but are trying to meet a deadline to make your site accessible. In this situation, having an accessibility consultant in your team can greatly speed up the coding process. The consultant may even have contacts who can become your development team.

What Other Accessibility Services Do You Provide?

There are several services related to accessibility consulting. For instance, you may hold an accessibility training for your development group or your company. This gives sufficient knowledge to your group in order for its members to make upcoming projects accessible. Other accessibility services include captioning for online videos and transcription for audio files such as podcasts.

Ask your consultant if he or she can give you these services. A consultant who can provide these services lets you avoid spending much time in looking for other companies. You can also save more money if you got these services from your accessibility consultant.

Conclusion

Answers to these questions may vary from one consultant to another. You may also have other related questions. You can nonetheless be sure that asking these questions and communicating with your consultant will benefit you, your team, and the accessibility project.